Post 25: nice list!
You could also say that all of these rules work together to get a big share of your attention. Worrying about dietary details, praying 5 times a day, attending every Green rally and voting the extreme left ticket.
So I think—Evil intelligent design of the movement near its inception or emergent phenonena? I can’t decide.
Environmentalism/communism-socialism is succeeding where atheist communism failed because:
* it didn’t approach the West as an ideological enemy but ingrained itself in everything
* it latched onto the desire to clean up rivers that caught fire and dirty air and morphed into “limit family size, energy usage and freedom” in the name of the same “help the environment”
* many people who are Judeo-Christian can agree with precepts like don’t litter, don’t kill animals needlessly, let’s have more parks - it is the communist/socialist solutions like “no ranching”, outlaw plastic bags and make owning pets darn near illegal that they have to fight. The struggle is then with a continuum where people now argue with a squishy middle, not realizing the other side is actually an enemy with which you cannot compromise.
* saving the planet / saving the Earth is a broad premise that can be adopted by anyone in any nation, creed and belief system. This isn’t seen as threatening by someone who believes in God, but can even seem great because you can rally with Jews and atheists for a common cause.
* There are plenty of Christian verses on being a good steward that can be co-opted to push Christians to go along.